Multinational Shell oil company settled its cases out of court this week with members of the Ogbodo community whose lands were devastated by an oil spill last year. As part of the settlement, Shell agreed to pay the community’s legal expenses and compensation costs for all damaged property. 40 percent of the unskilled workers hired by Shell to clear the spill must be members of the families affected, and the other 60 percent must be recruited from the general Ogbodo community. Meanwhile the trial brought against Shell in 1996 for complicity in human rights abuses in Ogoniland is still proceeding.
